Sullivan, Richard E. Aix-la Chapelle in the Age of Charlemagne. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1963.
ALAIN DE LILLE
(ca. 1115/20–1203). Known throughout the later Middle Ages as Doctor universalis,
Alain was probably born in the city of Lille (Nord), though the Îlede-la-Cité in Paris has
also been proposed. He became a Cistercian shortly before his death; when his body at
Cîteaux was exhumed in 1960, his age was put in the eighties, and his height at about 5
feet.
An anecdotal life sometimes appended to commentaries and frequently found in early
printed editions of the Parabolae is late and untrustworthy. We have no contemporary
record of where Alain studied, or of any ecclesiastical benefits he enjoyed. His early
literary and theological works, however, imply a Paris training, and reliable 13th-century
sources list him among the masters there. Study before 1150 at the Benedictine abbey of
Bec has been suggested, but there is no proof.
Alain seems to have been based in the southwest by the 1160s and to have written
extensively against the Cathars in that region. Manuscripts of his works often call him
Alainus de Podio, implying a connection with Le Puy, and two 13th-century manuscripts
call him Alain of Montpellier. His De fide catholica contra haereticos was dedicated to
Guilhem VIII, count of Montpellier (r. 1172–1202); in four books, it argues successively
against Cathars, Waldensians, Jews, and Muslims. His Distinctiones dictionum
theologicarum was dedicated to Abbot Ermengaud of Saint-Gilles (r. 1179–95). The
Liber poenitentialis is dedicated to Archbishop Henry Sully of Bourges (r. 1183–93), and
his brief commentary on the Song of Songs was written for the prior of Cluny.
With a few exceptions, the dates and chronology of Alain’s works are far from certain,
but the earliest are generally thought to be the Regulae caelestis iuris (ca. 1160), also
known as De maximis theologicis, which treated theology as an exact science, with
scientific rules based on geometry, and the summa Quoniam homines (1160–65), an
incomplete work discussing God and the Trinity, angels and humanity, according to the
rules of logic. Some themes are repeated in the brief De virtutibus et vitiis et de donis
Spiritus Sancti. His shorter theological works include numerous Sermones diversi,
commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, several short
pieces on angels, including De sex alis cherubim (sometimes accompanied by a drawing),
and the rules of celestial law, which made use of geometrical principles in its discussion
of the heavens. A few hymns are also ascribed to Alain of which the best known is Omnis
mundi creatura.
The Latin Parabolae are a collection of maxims in elegiac verse, similar in approach
to the Distichs of Cato and also designed for use in Latin classes in the schools. They
were frequently copied from the 12th through the 15th century, and early printed editions
are common.
All of Alain’s major works enjoyed wide European circulation throughout the Middle
Ages. Many were innovative tools for clergy. His Liber poenitentialis built on the
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 32